Baldomero Perez-Perez testifies Feb. 12, 2014, in Kent County Circuit Court about being shot during a robbery.Barton Deiters | MLive

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – After he was shot point-blank in the mouth on Sept. 3, 2012, the first thing Baldomero Perez-Perez thought of was a dream that had been haunting him.

“I had a dream about being shot and surviving,” Perez said during his testimony in Kent County Circuit Court on Tuesday, Feb. 11. “After I was shot, that’s what I thought about.”

Perez was walking away from Rau’s Party Store on South Division Avenue near Burton Street carrying a case of Bud Light on his shoulder when someone said “give me that,” grabbed the beer and put a .22-caliber gun next to Perez’s face and pulled the trigger.

Perez said he fell to the ground and held his breath, hoping his assailant would assume he was dead and would not shoot again.

As Perez played dead, his friends Felix Romeo Reyes-Santos, 45, and Alvaro Carrillo-Menendez, 22, were shot to death.

“I pretended to be dead,” Perez said. “If I had run, I wouldn’t be here.”

On Wednesday, Feb. 12, Medical Examiner David Start said Reyes-Santos was shot multiple times in the back, while Carrillo-Menendez was shot once in the head. Both died at the scene.

Perez said he never got a look at his shooter, but police say the man responsible for Perez’s injuries and his friends’ deaths is 25-year-old Michael Norris.

Norris is charged with two counts of felony murder, two counts of attempted murder, assault with intent to rob and five counts of felony use of a firearm. He faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted.

Perez said he never saw Norris before and never had any kind of conflict with Norris or anyone else that night.

Assistant Kent County Prosecutor Kellee Koncki says the shooting was random and part of a rampage by Norris, who, minutes after allegedly shooting Perez and his friends, allegedly shot two other men a few blocks away because they refused to hide Norris from police.

The shooting cost Perez several teeth. He had his jaw wired shut for three weeks and bullet fragments remain in his head 17 months later.

Perez is the first shooting victim to testify in the trial, which began Monday. Also expected to testify are shooting victims Cesar Rojas, who was shot in the chest, and his friend Ariel Vasquez, who was shot in the head and back.

These two men were allegedly approached by Norris near Griggs Street SW and Buchanan Avenue not long after the first shooting.

Koncki said she will present testimony that will connect Norris to the murders and assaults, including statements from friends and family of Norris, some of whom say they heard Norris confess to the shootings.

Defense attorney Christopher Dennie said much of the testimony will come from people who have plea deals in exchange for their testimony or who are known liars.